“The material covered in LSSU's engineering program provided me a solid foundation for graduate studies. The systematic approach and communication skills needed to tackle engineering projects were taught and then practiced over and over again. In particular I appreciate the many hours spent by the faculty to develop oral presentation skills in each student. As a graduate student now, these skills have proven to be highly beneficial and, to my surprise, obviously not taught to the same extent at many other universities.”
Mark Reese, Mechanical Engineering 2005
Hawaii Natural Energy Institute
School of Ocean & Earth Science and Technology
Graduate Student, University of Hawaii at Manoa
Mechanical Engineering
Senior Projects
Real world learning
Our students participate in a senior-year experience which includes one
team project or a research team project.
Six engineering students
were recognized this past year
at two competitions held at
professional conferences when
it presented “Mobile Robotics
Workcell – Using Robotics to
Lure Young Minds to Manufacturing
Engineering.”
Under the direction of Prof.
Jim Devaprasad, the senior
project team Automated Promotional
Engineering Systems
(APES) designed and built a
mobile robotics workcell that
showcases various automation
technologies.
“Given the national need
to encourage young minds to
seek careers in math and science
fields, we hope to entice young
individuals to the exciting opportunities
in engineering and
technology by demonstrating
this mobile robotic workcell,”
said Devaprasad. “It has already
been showcased many times at
LSSU in the summer engineering
camps and for visitors in the
engineering departments.”
The workcell’s robot demonstrates
two projects: automatic solving of a user-scrambled
Rubik’s cube (above), and the automated
assembly of an automotive distributor (below).
Team member Kate Kuuskman,
mechanical engineering,
from Sault, Ont., and Leith
Nader, also mechanical engineering,
from Milford, Mich.
(now an applications engineer
with Kawasaki Robotics in
Wixom, Mich.), presented a paper
on the project that received
honorable mention at the Pan
American Federation of Engineering
Societies Convention in
Atlanta, Ga., last fall. LSSU was
one of five universities invited
to make presentations, along
with Cornell, Michigan Tech,
U.S. Air Force Academy and
University of Puerto Rico.
Fellow teammate and
alumnus Brad Bertels of Ironwood,
Mich. (now working for
RoboTek in Brighton, Mich.)
presented the project at the
American Society of Mechanical
Engineers’ International
Conference of Manufacturing
Science and Engineering in Ypsilanti,
Mich. Again, LSSU was
one of only five finalists invited
to participate and present a
technical paper. The
project took second
place in the ASME
Student Design
Competition behind
University of Florida – Gainesville, and
ahead of University
of Michigan – Ann
Arbor, Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute
and University of
New Hampshire.
Robotic Calibration Systems (RCS) is a multidisciplinary team of engineering students comprised of two electrical engineers, one computer engineer, and three mechanical engineers.
The team was assigned the task of designing and building two service test stands for Continental Automotive Systems (CAS), a world-wide leader in innovative technologies for vehicle safety applications. The stands will be used to calibrate the Sprint 3 Programmable Steering Machine, which is manufactured by Heitz Automotive. The Steering Machine used by CAS automates testing applications pertaining to vehicle rollover testing.
